Ferro Negro: A Moto Guzzi 1000 SP cafe racer

There’s something about a big-block Moto Guzzi that lends itself perfectly to the creation of a stripped-down, brutal café racer.

‘Ferro Negro’—Black Iron in Italian— is based on a 1981 Moto Guzzi 1000 SP and it was built by Andrea Viganò of Bruciato Garage in Bergamo, Italy.

There’s nothing subtle about this bike, with matte black paint throwing attention onto the huge finned V-twin cylinders. The SP was a rusted-out wreck when Viganò bought it, so he used his spare time during the cold Alpine winter to create his vision. The tank is a fibreglass V7 unit, which works strangely well with the tail from a Suzuki RG500 endurance racer.

Viganò then rewired the Guzzi and removed all unnecessary electrics—along with all the instrumentation apart from a rev counter. Newer Moto Guzzi control blocks were fitted, plus Tarozzi rearsets and Lafranconi mufflers wrapped with tape. Ferro Negro doesn’t have the slender aesthetics of a British café racer or the delicacy of a Honda CB, but it has a sense of purpose that few other custom motorcycles can match.